Abstract:
Purpose: Aging society becomes a globing phenomenon. The busy society lifestyle, different marriage forms, low
birth rate, and life span extension are making the issues of aging society more severed. However, lacking companions and
siblings aggregate elders’ social support issues. According to the previous studies in U.S.A. and Europe, playing with pets and
animals provides the source of comforting and sense of companionship. In the different culture, the purpose of this study was
to determine the leisure therapy’s physical and psychological health effects by applying animal-assisted leisure activity (AALA) to rest home elders. Method: The research objectives were elders who resided in a private rest home in northern Taiwan. The
researchers conducted a one-hour a time and 6 times a week longitudinal AALA experiment to the experimental (AALA
participants) and control group (AALA non-participants) elders for 6 weeks. Questionnaires, interview, and on-site observation
were applied for both groups. Results: In the physical health aspect, the AALA had slightly positive influence to the two groups’
elders. Additionally, in the psychological and social health aspect, the experiment group had improved much better than
the control group. Conclusion: The elderly who lived in the rest home for a long time were obviously unable to take care of
themselves. By applying AALA recreation therapy, the elders’ physical, psychological health and sense of social support had been
improved, especially psychological health and sense of social support.
目的:全球高龄化现象日趋显着,再加上工商业社会繁忙、婚姻结构改变、少子化及人类寿命延长的现象,使高龄化的问题更为严峻,而缺乏亲友子女长期陪伴加重了老人社会支持问题。在欧美相关的研究中指出,动物在人情绪低落时具有抚慰的力量与促进身心健康的效益,因此在不同文化下,本研究目的为应用动物辅助休闲活动,探讨休闲治疗对照护机构老人身心健康的影响。方法:本研究对象为台湾北部某私人照护机构之老人,研究设计为期六周共计六次之纵断性动物辅助休闲活动实验研究,研究方法将老人分成实验组(参与活动)与对照组(未参与活动)各 6 位,研究工具与资料收集采用动物辅助休闲活动量表、访谈法以及现场观察方式,再进行活动前后两组数据的比较。结果:在生理健康方面,参与动物辅助休闲活动对老人生理健康稍有正面改善;在心理健康与社会健康方面,参与动物辅助休闲活动之老人其心理健康与社会健康之改善明显高于未参与活动之老人。结论:长期居住照护机构之老人,其生活明显无法自理,但导入以休闲治疗为目的之动物辅助休闲活动后,其身心健康均得到不同程度的提升,特别是心理健康与社会健康有显著的正向影响。